Dec 20
A detailed and critical examination of recent Free Trade Agreements between developing and developed countries, particularly U.S.-developing country FTAs. Includes treatment of issues market access in trade in goods; services; investment liberalisation and protection of investor rights; intellectual property; government procurement; competition policy; labour and environment standards.
Dec 10
This 75-page paper begins with an analysis of the disadvantages of free trade agreements compared to multilateral trade agreements; and continues with a critique of the CARIFORUM-EC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) through a detailed examination of the chapters on Trade in Goods, Services, Investment, Competition policy, Governmment Procurement, Intelellectual Property and Dispute Settlement.
Oct 23
[Abridged version of The Caribbean EPA Affair: Lesons for for the Progressive Movement]
The CARIFORUM-EU EPA, which was initialled in December 2007 and signed in October 2008, precipitated one of the most intense public debates in the recent history of the Caribbean Community (Caricom). At the core of the controversy lay differing views amongst Caribbean elites on development strategy, trade policy, regional integration, and the manner of engaging with globalisation. This paper suggests some ‘lessons learnt’ from the negotiation process itself and from the efforts of civil society to secure review and renegotiation of the initialled text. It employs a political economy approach that considers issues of ideology, power, governance and politics…
Aug 28
by Clive Thomas
This paper offers basically from a CARICOM perspective, a strategic appraisal of the external trade policy changes encapsulated in the CARIFORUM-EC, Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). This has been recognised as the first “full and comprehensive” EPA among the six that are being negotiated by the European Commission, (EC) and the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) group of countries. At this point, the EPA is both a legal agreement and an instrument designed to promote specified development objectives. Ultimately, its strengths, weaknesses, as well as the opportunities it will create and the threats it will face, will unfold during its implementation. How this is actualized will be a principal determinant of its success in attaining those objectives.
The first Section contrasts key forecasted long-run benefits of the EPA with front-loaded implementation costs that are already occurring in the Region. Section II assesses why this is the case. Section III comments on the EU assistance commitments in the Agreement. Section IV assesses the consultations process in CARICOM during the negotiations and draws attention to some important issues of economic governance. The final Section (V) considers a number of contextual and related issues important for the future of the Region under the EPA.
Aug 13
by Norman Girvan
Abstract: This paper discusses lessons for the regional progressive movement of the 2007-2008 campaign of Caricom civil society to secure public review and government renegotiation of the CARIFORUM-EU EPA. To this end it highlights the role of ideology, power, governance and politics. It argues that the EPA institutionalises a relationship of asymmetrical power with the European Union based on the principles of neoliberal globalisation; and that it was secured through the manipulation of ‘divide and conquer’ and ‘carrot and stick’ strategies together with an ideologically driven framework for the negotiations that portrayed neoliberal policies as being automatically conducive to development. The protest movement succeeded in exposing the agreement to public scrutiny and debate and helped to secure insertion of a mandatory review clause in the final agreement. It failed to obtain a complete renegotiation of the EPA: the reasons include the absence of a strong regional political base and organisational capability, the amorphous character of Cariforum/Caricom governance; and the enormous external and internal pressures exerted on governments to sign what had been negotiated. Three techniques employed in the EPA process are highlighted: ‘technification’ of the negotiation process as an instrument of mystification and political exclusion; ’sweetification’ of the presumed benefits of the EPA in order to facilitate political acceptance; and ‘treatyfication’ of the outcome of the negotiations in order to bind present and future government policies. These techniques may have salience in the politics of trade agreements in other countries and regions. The paper concludes by summarising lessons in the light of the possibility of modifying the EPA in the future and of upcoming negotiations with other trading partners involving issues similar to those that were contentious in the EPA.
May 25
Presentation at Caribbean Diplomatic Training Programme for Mid-Career Diplomats, Georgetown, Guyana, May 22, 2009
- EPA Criticisms
- Strategic Lessons
- EPA Review Clause
- Canadian FTA
Click here for Presentation
Nov 26
The objective of this review is to shed some light on the issues driving (the EPA) debate particularly in the areas of market access, the impact on tariff revenues, and the implications for regional integration…
Click here for ECLAC Assessment of the EPA
Jul 27
Text of presentation at UNIFEM Expert Group Meeting on ‘Gender and the EPA’, Port of Spain, July 27, 2008
The European Union’s (EU) economic size, measured by its gross domestic product (GDP), is 400 times that of CARICOM, and its average national income seven times greater. Its labor productivity (value of output per worker) is about 5 times that of CARICOM, and its productivity growth is about 2 to 3 times greater. Negotiation with this 800-pound gorilla can in no sense be described as one of between-equals. We must therefore first of all recognize ourselves for what we are- small, weak and vulnerable. And thus we must do the best we can to safeguard our interests; strengthen solidarity with our ACP partners; and develop strategic alliances with sympathetic interests. Reliance on the “good faith” and “honor” of any gorilla is misplaced and stupid…
Full Statement
Jun 24
‘The Fork in the Road’
Presentation at ILO/CCL Roundtable, Barbados, June 24, 2008
Click here for PowerPoint Presentation
Jun 12
Keynote Address at CPDC/FITUN Caribbean Regional Forum, UWI Campus, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, June 12, 2008 (Revised)
From before the EPAs were initialled a great deal of concern had been expressed that ACP countries were being the agreements being negotiated fell far short of the satisfying the Cotonou mandate to support sustainable development and regional integration. The view commonly expressed was that ACP countries were being, in effect, coerced by the EC into signing agreements to meet an artificially imposed deadline; and that these agreements that had much more to do with the EC’s global trade agenda than with the interests of ACP countries...
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